David Parr House is an ordinary terraced house in Cambridge with an extraordinary hand-painted interior. Home to the Victorian working-class artist, David Parr and his family, the house is an example of Arts and Crafts workmanship layered with 20th-century social history.
David Parr bought 186 Gwydir Street in 1886 and spent the next 40 years transforming the house into a beautifully decorated, comfortable family home. David documented his home improvements in his notebook, which survives to this day and meticulously documents how the house was restructured, improved and decorated.
I am proud to be a guest artist in this year’s House Guests exhibition ‘Emerald Green, Mineral Green’. The curation of the invited ‘guests’ is simply brilliant…nothing is disturbed, artworks are simply and wittily added to the house.
The house is open for timed visits Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. ** Booking essential**. Link to book here
In David Parr’s time, green pigments could be unpredictable and even poisonous, yet they were central to his decoration of the house. Today, the colour carries very different associations of care, renewal, and our relationship with the natural world.
Thank you to everyone at @davidparrhouse for a special evening in such a remarkable place! 🏠
